Scott Westerlaken

I was watching local TV for the first time in a long while and on this rare occasion I saw a station produced ad that reminded me of how easily businesses lose sight of communicating their value proposition and key message.   The ad seemed to be produced so that the client could get excited about seeing their family on TV.  It would appear that they forget about the purpose of the ad!  At PHI we regularly run our ideas through four key filters, no matter what the budget.  They are: will the ad be noticeable, does it have a clear call to action, is it easy to act upon, and, most importantly…. is it watchable!

Noticeable: Will your message be seen at the right time, in the right setting. Seems simple enough but just watch late night TV and you will see some odd ads that got “great deals” on their media buy! Look at your television media buy as you would any other location where you would consider doing business.  LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!

Clear Call To Action: I touched on this in one of my earlier blogs but here it is again.  Use a simple compelling statement and/or visuals to get your target to take action. If you leave your target wondering around, they just might wonder through your competition’s doors.

Easy To Act Upon: Unless you have a huge foot print (either physically or brand) tell us how to find you.  Make whatever method you choose easy for the viewer to remember (like “located in the heart of downtown) or a memorable phone number or website.  Leaving your target something that they would need to write down in order to remember is a “killer’ as no one ever does!

Watchable: It might not be an award winning ad but it needs to be able to communicate the message.  The better crafted the message the more likely the target will watch or even enjoy watching.  Otherwise people will just tune it out. Google Ads method of placement is quite intriguing and is where stations should be striving in the future (I’ll write about this and how it could save network TV in the new year).  It’s the same reason why everyone wants to watch the US national broadcast of the Super Bowl rather than the local station feeds!

Even low budget, simple message ads can be watchable and hard working.  If they can do it for the “Snuggie” and “Chia Pet” why not yours!

Further, but often overlooked as common sense, make the information you are communicating compelling and relevant to the audience.  If you sell industrial generators you don’t need to advertise on local TV!  Also, make whatever you are trying to sell look and/or sound great AND, hey, while you’re at it, make people feel some emotion for it!  On a side note, if your product is food, then if you do nothing else, make it look edible… Granted, it is hard to make smoked meat look good, but knowing that means if you can’t…THEN DON’T!

It doesn’t take a much to do ultra low budget ads correctly, funny enough you usually don’t have much to work with!  I produced these low budget adds for Greco almost 5 years ago but they still hold up, look great, and communicate the message effectively!

Another Greco Ad I produced that was effective and ultra low budget was the Lost ad.  Simple idea, only one main talent and a great sound track.

I did an ad for a small furniture store in Sidney Nova Scotia almost ten years ago that normally had their commercials done by the local station.  The brief: Must communicate the “sale”, must have a unique approach from what the station kept on delivering (why we got the call) and must be produced for under $2,000.

I normally don’t show the series of ads in my portfolio and, frankly, this is the first time I’ve showed anyone.  In marketing no one looks to see a $$ figure before or after they watch a commercial.  I also think it could have been executed a little better but hindsight and 10 years will do that to most.  It did get results though, which the station ads didn’t.

Each organization has it’s own problems they need to solve and messages they need to convey.  It is those items that will be the definer for how their ads should be approached and executed on.  In reality, if your ideas miss on the four filters you could be just wasting  your media buy.  When it comes to low budget and Station produced ads it’s up to the advertiser to make sure their money is used effectively.

I would love to get some more links to good ultra low budget station ads and…by the way…Happy Holidays!

SW